Changes

Goal is a girls sport and life skills programme developed by Standard Chartered Bank and supported by Women Win with an effort to build leadership and financial literacy amongst adolescent girls and young women.

With the aim to assess the impact of the Goal program on young girls in the long term, Women Win established the Goal Diaries project. Football for All in Vietnam chose 10 female students representing the football clubs in Hue to carry out a 5 year interview, recording changes in their thoughts, attitudes and actions before and after they joined the Goal program. From the first 2 years, we recognized big changes in the children’s answers when they were asked the same questions after a period of time.

In the first year, we recorded their thoughts before joining the program; most of them seemed really shy and awkward. They said that they did not have the qualities to become a good leader because they thought they were not good enough to lead people. In 2016, Nguyen Thi Kim Phung, a student at A Luoi Boarding Primary school for ethnic minorities shared: “I don’t really believe that I’m a good leader. When I was in charge of my class activities, my classmates didn’t listen to me and even went against me.” However, in a year of participating in Goal activities, there was a big change in Kim Phung’s mind. She is the vice-monitor in her class. She helps teachers check on everybody’s regulations compliance as well as helping them with other difficulties. This year, this little girl can confidently affirm that she can be a leader and will try her best to achieve that goal.

As for the already active and bold girls, through the Goal program, they can learn useful things and improve their weaknesses. In spite of being monitors, they still need to practice their public speaking skills, and evaluating and leading people. They also set specific goals in the next year and made action plans to achieve them. Linh Dan, a student at Loc Tri Primary School said that she wanted to move out in the coming years and be able to earn money to support herself. Her great efforts were shown clearly in those simple and sincere answers.

The results we received are promising ones highlighting a better and successful life ahead of the children. They got the chance to be trained in both knowledge and skills. They got the chance to understand and explore themselves, to become better versions of themselves. After that, they will have the abilities to support their families and the community. This is the final destination that we, the organizers always work towards.